Will an old high-utilization percentage affect my score?

[Thorin]

Will an old high-utilization percentage affect my score or is it only calculated when it's pulled (based on whatever the banks posted to the CRA)?

ie if I had a 20% utilization a month ago, but only 10% now, will that 20% utilization still affect my score in any way? 

[drkaje]

No.

[pizzadude]

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@Thorin wrote:

Will an old high-utilization percentage affect my score or is it only calculated when it's pulled (based on whatever the banks posted to the CRA)?

ie if I had a 20% utilization a month ago, but only 10% now, will that 20% utilization still affect my score in any way? 

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FICO scoring has no memory, it is calculated at the point that you ( or a creditor ) requests it.   The old 20% utilization won't have any impact on your current FICO score, which will be based on your 10% utilization.

[Anonymous]

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@pizzadude wrote:

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@Thorin wrote:

Will an old high-utilization percentage affect my score or is it only calculated when it's pulled (based on whatever the banks posted to the CRA)?

ie if I had a 20% utilization a month ago, but only 10% now, will that 20% utilization still affect my score in any way? 

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FICO scoring has no memory, it is calculated at the point that you ( or a creditor ) requests it.   The old 20% utilization won't have any impact on your current FICO score, which will be based on your 10% utilization.

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+1 Whenever you or a lender pulls your report, it's a snapshot of your credit profile at that exact point in time.

[RobertEG]

+1

However, while FICO does not score past utilization, prior balance history is reviewable upon a manual review of your full credit report, and could be a factor looked at by creditors.

While many commercial credit reports do not show prior balance history, your monthly prior balances are stored in your credit file, similar to the payment history profile of prior derogs over a period of approx. 48 months.  A creditor can review your prior balance history.  They can still see your utilization for more than just the current month.

Thus, while FICO does not score past util, creditors can still manually evaluate it if they are so inclined.